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kristak767
kristak767
Participant
October 12, 2018
Question

Repeatedly having missing folders in Lightroom

  • October 12, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 2099 views

I am constantly having the issue of sitting down at the computer, opening Lightroom and having all the folders from a drive have questions marks by them and not be able to be found. All of my files are on an external hardrive, I use the same port every time and I have not moved the files from the original location. It is getting tiresome having to locate the missing files frequently. What is happening here and what could I do to permanently fix this situation? I am using Lightroom 5 with the newer updates and my pc is running windows 10.

Also, another thing I find very curious is that I have photos that import sometimes to different drive locations even when the external is plugged into the same exact port. Needless to say my catalog gets very confusing. Is there a solution to this? Thank you, any help appreciated!

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

G
GLGracey
Known Participant
December 12, 2018

Help! I've got exclamation points in most of  All Photographs in my Catalog. Ditto Previous Process Photos. Also question marks on some Folders. Have not switched files around on my hard drive, so have no idea what is going on. Appreciate direction here. Many thanks. Lorraine

elie_dinur
elie_dinur
Participating Frequently
October 13, 2018

I changed my external storage drives to X, Y and Z and a USB stick that I use for transporting files to U, years ago and no matter which port I plug them in that's how they are identified. Keeps LR happy.

kristak767
kristak767Author
Participant
October 13, 2018

wow, I am going to give this a try. Thanks everyone for chiming in and the links as well! So, why the letters at the end of the alphabet? Why does that make the difference?

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 13, 2018

What are the chances that you might have 20 or more devices plugged into USB?

Your X,Y,Z, drives will always be X,Y,Z  even if Windows assigns D,E,F,G,H,... to random USB sticks or other drives that get plugged in or out.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
October 12, 2018

Is this possibly a case of the external drive letter identification being changed? In other words it is the external drive identified as drive F during one Lightroom session, and then identified as drive G during another Lightroom session?

    kristak767
    kristak767Author
    Participant
    October 12, 2018

    That seems plausible. Do you mean for the missing folder issue? I have missing folders in all of the drives E, F, G(This is used with another hardrive). Would the drive identification change per session even though I am using the same port though?

    JP Hess
    JP Hess
    Inspiring
    October 12, 2018

    Yes, that's entirely possible. Especially if you are using drive letters that are close to the beginning of the alphabet. It would be a good idea for you to use your operating system to assign a permanent drive letter that was closer to the end of the alphabet. If you did that then it would be assigned permanently, and that could possibly eliminate the missing folders because the drive letter would not be constantly changing.

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